Nigeria is one of the developing countries where many challenges are affecting the management of its academic libraries, especially in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) application. Academic libraries are libraries in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) that are established to provide information resources and information services in support of the research, teaching, learning, and community development objectives of the institutions. However, despite the overwhelming influence of ICT, the information superhighway, and the open access initiatives across the globe, the extent of ICT adoption, application, and utilization for the provision of information services in Nigerian academic libraries is nothing to cheer. This chapter, which adopts a descriptive approach, examines the following: conceptual explanation of ICT and the case for its application and the state of ICT and the challenges of ICT application in Nigerian academic libraries, with recommendations on the way forward.
TopConceptual Explanation Of Ict And The Case For Its Application In Nigerian Academic Libraries
ICT has been defined by various scholars from different perspectives. According to De Waterville and Gilbert (2000), ICT is the acquisition, analysis, manipulation, storage and distribution of information; and the design and provision of equipment and software for these purposes. It is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate and create, disseminate, store, and manage information (Blurton, n.d.). To Nwachukwu (2007), ICT is the application of computers and other technologies to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. It is seen as the aggregate of computers, telecommunication gadgets, multimedia resources, and other electronic technologies that are applied and utilized in the total process of information management and dissemination. The components of ICT include the computer systems (hardware and software, input and output devices); storage media such as compact disk read only memory (CD-ROMs), Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives; and telecommunication equipment like telephone, facsimile transmission, services of the Internet, Web 2.0 and social media, video and teleconferencing, and so forth. ICTs encompass a range of rapidly evolving technologies and they include telecommunication technologies (telephone, cable, satellite, television and radio, computer-mediated conferencing, video conferencing) as well as digital technologies (computers, information networks, Internet, world wide Web, intranets and extranets) and software applications (Chisenga in Haliso, 2011)
Several stages are involved in the application of ICT to library and information services. They include: